


The Words Painted on my Skin

by Gamzee_Makaraoni, TailsDoll13 (Gamzee_Makaraoni)



Series: Winterhawk Week 2016 [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, M/M, Past Brainwashing, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-06-10 13:53:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6959386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gamzee_Makaraoni/pseuds/Gamzee_Makaraoni, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gamzee_Makaraoni/pseuds/TailsDoll13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We should get moving, before the others get here."</p><p>"Don’t worry, Terminator, I’ve got a chopper all lined up."</p><p>--</p><p>The first words that your soulmate says to you are written somewhere on your skin. Once you say those words, they will heat up and darken to black.</p><p>Bucky didn't think someone wanted a brainwashed assassin as a soulmate. Clint thought the same.</p><p>Written for Winterhawk Week 2016</p><p>(Civil War spoilers)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Words Painted on my Skin

**Author's Note:**

> For Winterhawk Day 3-Soulmates.
> 
> This is my first time writing Marvel fanfiction, so I apologize if anything seems off. I’m basing this off the Hawkeye comics and the canon in the movies, save for certain things from Age of Ultron. I also changed the dialogue and actions in a few scenes from the original.
> 
> CONTAINS HEAVY CIVIL WAR SPOILERS!!!

Bucky hummed as he stared at his soulmark. The dark brown words were embedded in his memory, but he never tired of looking at them- _Don’t worry, Terminator, I’ve got a chopper all lined up._ “I wonder what a terminator is.”

Steve looked up from the ground. He tapped the stick in his hand against the grooves he had made in the dirt. “I dunno.”

Bucky stuck his tongue out at his friend. “I wasn’t asking you, Stevie.”

Steve stuck his tongue out as well. “I’m the only one here. Doesn’t your mama know?”

Bucky shrugged, leaning against the tree. A red leaf fell down, and he caught it in his hand. The air was crisp and smelled like autumn, one of his favorite times of the year. “She doesn’t know. Neither do any of the neighbors.”

Steve hummed. “Weird thing for a soulmate to say.”

“Says the boy who has two.”

“That’s not weird! Ma says a lot of people have two-“

He was cut off by a coughing fit, and Bucky’s fists tightened. Autumn was always harsh on Steve’s health, and winter harsher still. They weren’t soulmates, but he was determined to protect his friend to the end. “Let’s go in.”

“Jeez, ‘m fine, Buck-“ Steve coughed even harder, and didn’t object to Bucky lifting him up and helping him home.

* * *

 

Voices ebbed in and out of the cold darkness.

“If only his mark had been on the arm he had lost.”

“You know that’s impossible. Soulmarks have a way of reappearing on a person no matter what.”

“It could trigger his memory.”

“He’s not even activated. Just keep him frozen for long enough. Chances are his soulmate will die, and he’ll never meet them.”

The Soldier didn’t care for the words on his arm. They were not part of his mission. The scientists could do whatever they wanted to them.

He told himself this, every time he awoke. The words didn’t matter. The words didn’t matter. The words didn’t matter.

They didn’t matter to him until one day, on a mission to take out a politician, the words grew warm. That was the only time he had ever missed his target.

* * *

 

“I’m telling ya, kid.” Jamie took the cigarette out of her mouth to blow a lazy smoke circle. “Ya got a soulmate who’s in the Mafia.”

Clint stifled a cough and waved the smoke away. “The words could mean anything, Jamie.”

She snorted. “Really? ‘Cos ‘We should get moving, before the others get here’ sounds like somethin’ a Mafia member would say. Don’t ya think, hun?”

The girl pressed up to Jamie’s side giggled and nodded her head. Clint was pretty sure she had said her name earlier, but he didn’t bother remembering it. Jamie had a different local girl every night, changing them faster than she changed her trapeze routine-and she had a new one in every town.

“I doubt I’m gonna meet someone from the Mafia. And even if I did, they wouldn’t be my soulmate.”

“Clint, we’re in the circus. We do impossible things every night. It ain’t as far-fetched as ya think.” Jamie put her cigarette out on the counter and stood up, taking her girl with her.

“Still looking for a meaning?”

Clint didn’t look up as Barney slid into the seat Jamie had just vacated. “Wouldn’t hurt to know.”

“Mom and Dad weren’t soulmates, Clint. These words mean jack shit.”

“Mom’s soulmate died before she could marry her, and the first words Dad heard from his were also the last.”

Barney waved down the bartender for a beer. “Whatever. We’re part of a circus; we’ll never stay around long enough for our soulmates.”

Clint swallowed down his suggestion about running away from the circus.

* * *

 

He was in his head.

He wasn’t safe, he wouldn’t ever be safe.

All he saw was blue. A cold, icy blue.

Blue in everyone’s eyes. Blue on his clothes and arrows. Blue spilling out of the people he knew, the people he cared about. He was the reason for the blue spilling from them.

Blue.

Blue.

Blue.

He was blue and cold and a murderer and oh if only he could break free if only he could die-

“Clint.”

The words were blue and his breath was blue and he was blue-

“Clint.”

Coulson was blue and Fury was blue and Natasha was blue, she was so blue, the arrow in her head was even bluer-

“Clint!”

His eyes flew open and he gasped, scrambling backwards.

Clint wasn’t under Loki’s control. He was in the Avengers Tower, far away from Loki, who was in Asgard. His hands and his eyes and his thoughts were his own.

Natasha was at the foot of his bed, her eyes wide with worry. “Another nightmare?”

Clint can’t answer as he starts to cry, because Natasha isn’t blue. Her hair is as red as always, her eyes so vividly green, and he never made her blue, he never killed her.

She sat next to him on his bed and wrapped her arms around him. She doesn’t make him talk about the nightmare, and he is so grateful. If only they were soulmates, because Natasha accepts what had happened to him, and his soulmate deserves better than the broken man Loki turned him into.

But Natasha isn’t his soulmate, she is Pepper’s, and the ache nearly tears him apart. No person in the world deserved a man who dreamed of blue every night, and had a panic attack when the temperature went below 60 degrees. He was too broken to be anyone’s soulmate.

* * *

 

“Steve, what do the words mean?”

Steve doesn’t answer Bucky as they drive to the airport, where they were supposed to meet up with some people Steve knew. The thought of so many people prepared to sacrifice for him made his head swim. He was a murder machine. How could people care for him?

Sam’s mouth, for once, is a blessing. “What, the first words your soulmate says to you?”

Bucky couldn’t have asked anyone without looking crazy, and the Internet was still a maze to him. “Is that what these are?”

“Yes, Bucky.” Steve’s tone is clipped for some reason.

A soulmate? The idea confused him. Bucky had been brainwashed to the point that his brain was probably mush, and he had killed so many people over the years. What kind of person would want him as a soulmate?

“Wasn’t yours something weird? I think that was in a Captain America book I read as a kid,” Sam said.

“Uh, I guess. What’s a Terminator?”

Sam is clearly trying not to laugh for some reason, and Steve gives him a Look. “It’s a movie. I’ll explain it later.”

“Terminator,” Sam whispered, before snickering.

Bucky ignored him when a memory started to swirl. “You have two, Steve.”

“Yes.”

“Peggy was one…what about the other?”

Steve gripped the steering wheel tightly. “You know him.”

“What, really?” Sam arched an eyebrow. “I thought you had some secret soulmate back in the army.”

“Nope, he’s alive and well.”

“Thor?”

“He has Jane.”

“Rhodey?”

“Coulson.”

“Bruce?”

“No soulmark.”

Sam pauses. “Is it Tony?”

Steve doesn’t answer, but the car starts to go faster. If Bucky wasn’t mistaken, Tony was the person they were running from, who wanted to take him into custody. Steve was fighting with his soulmate over Bucky. He felt like he should be honored, but he really just felt sad. Bucky wasn’t worth fighting with your soulmate.

Sam whistled. “This is all kinds of fucked up.”

“Look. I don’t want to talk about it. One thing at a time.”

“Steve-“

Steve glanced at Bucky in the rearview mirror, and Bucky saw a glimpse of Steve’s angrier side-the side that made him scary as a kid, and terrifying as a super soldier.

“Drop it,” he ordered in his Captain America voice. Both Sam and Bucky shut their mouths.

Bucky rubbed his arm absently over the words on his arm. For some reason, they were starting to get warmer. Maybe that was a normal thing. It had happened on that mission years ago, the only time he had missed.

A few minutes passed by before Bucky started kicking idly at Sam’s seat. “Dude, quit it.”

“Move your seat up.”

“No.”

Bucky started kicking harder.

“Listen, Cap’s best friend or not, I will throw you out of this car-“

_RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP_

Sam shouted in surprise. The car lurched to a stop in the middle of the empty road, as all three passengers stared at the new hole in Sam’s seat.

Bucky leveled Sam with a cool stare. “I said to move up.”

* * *

 

Clint looked up from the files on his tablet as a tiny old blue car pulled up next to them, with Steve squished in the passenger’s seat. He idly wondered how the hell Steve managed to fit in there, much less Sam and Bucky. Seriously, were European cars manufactured by clowns?

On the way to the airport, Clint had pulled up every available file he could find in the remains of the SHIELD databases on the rest of the people he knew were involved. Some he already knew, like Tony and Steve, but the Black Panther was new to him. He also hadn’t looked at the files on the Winter Soldier since Washington, D.C. He also had Wanda and Scott review the files.

(Yeah, he knew that Scott seemed like a poor choice, but when Clint tried to ask Matt Murdock for help the lawyer had thrown his cane at him with surprising accuracy and claimed that he was wrapped up in enough American law without getting into any laws from other countries. Plus, he and Scott had some stuff in common-both men needed their coffee in the morning and Wanda hated it when either of them sang “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” At least she drove on the condition that neither of them sing it.)

Usually he wasn’t so on-task, but he knew how important this was to Steve. And the words on his arm were heating up- _We should get moving, before the others get here._ The words didn’t burn unless you were getting close to your soulmate, and Clint didn’t want to think about that. What kind of person would want some brainwashed ex-assassin for their soulmate?

“Cap,” Clint called as he stepped out from the back of the van. Steve managed to extract himself from the car and walked up to him, sticking out his hand for Clint to shake.

“You know I wouldn’t have called if I had any other choice,” Steve apologized.

“Hey man, you’re doing me a favor. I had to get back in the action somehow. Plus, Scarlet needed to get out.”

Wanda shrugged. “It was time to get off my ass.”

Behind Steve, Sam and the person Clint assumed was Bucky got out of the car. Seeing him in real life was a jolt to Clint. For starters, he was short. Clint already knew that he was 5’9, but the legendary assassin, the ghost of stories that made baby assassins wet their pants, was only to his shoulders. Not that he minded, of course. It didn’t detract from his handsome, brooding face at all-

_Whoa, whoa, no crushing on Steve’s best friend. He could probably crush you with his thighs like Natasha can-Okay, don’t think about his thighs either._

“How about our other recruit?” Steve asked, breaking Clint out of his thoughts. He schooled his face into neutral.

“He’s raring to go, just put a little coffee in him and he’ll be good.” Clint stepped back to slide open the van door, waking Scott up with a jolt. He groaned and climbed out of the van.

“Ugh, what time zone is this?” he grumbled, glaring at Clint. All of the tiredness disappeared from Scott’s face, however, when he laid eyes on Steve. His jaw dropped open, and Clint held back a snicker at his awestruck expression as he reached into the van to get the gear.

“You’re Captain America!” he heard Scott exclaim.

“Mr. Lang,” Steve answered.

“Wow, it’s an honor. I’m shaking your hand too long!”

“He has that effect,” Clint called from the van.

Scott ignored him. “Wow, this is awesome! I know you too, Scarlet, you’re great!” Clint turned around to see Scott turn from Wanda to Steve and promptly put his hands on his arms. “Wow!” Steve looked really weirded out, while Sam’s face said “We’ve all been there, buddy.” To Clint’s surprise, Bucky looked like he was trying to hold back a laugh, which was kind of cute.

_Clint. We talked about this. Flirting is for later._

“Look, I just want to say,” Scott continued, “I know you know a lot of super people, so…thanks for thinking of me.” Steve smiled, and Scott leaned past him to look at Sam. “Hey, man!”

Wanda leaned into the van. “Is your mark still hot?” she whispered to Clint.

It was burning, but Clint wasn’t about to tell Wanda that. “Doesn’t matter right now. What’s important is this mission.”

“Clint, your mark is important too. _You_ are important.”

God, Clint didn’t know where to start with her. She was like a daughter to him, one that knew how his mind ticked. He felt bad for having to leave her alone in the Tower for so long.

“Yes, I know, I just-I need to focus on what’s going on right now. The future can wait.”

Wanda bit her lip and retreated from the van. Clint pulled on his vest and followed her out.

“…you’ll be a wanted man,” Steve was saying.

Scott was quiet for a moment. “Yeah, well, what else is new?” he muttered.

“We should get moving, before the others get here,” Bucky said, and Clint barely had time to register what he said before he answered.

“Don’t worry, Terminator, I’ve got a chopper all lined up.”

_Shit, will he take offense to Terminator? Wait, did he just say-_

He didn’t finish the thought before the words on his arm flared up, and he let out several cuss words as he gripped it. Distantly, he made out what sounded like someone else shouting, but he couldn’t focus on who it was. He ripped off his arm guard to see that the words were glowing bright orange, before they died down to black, standing out against his skin.

At his gasp of pain, Wanda and Scott had surrounded him. Wanda had her hands over her mouth, and Scott stared at the words before letting out a low whistle.

“Dude, you just activated.”

* * *

 

For one second, everything had been fine, and then the words that had been burning on Bucky’s right arm had exploded.

“Dammit!” he shouted, doubling over and clutching his arm. Someone else screamed, but he couldn’t make out the words. Someone was trying to talk to him-Steve-but he couldn’t focus on him.

He yanked up his right shirt sleeve, nearly tearing the fabric off, to see that the words on his arms were glowing bright orange.

Bucky searched his mind desperately, trying to remember what this meant. Why would the words start glowing? Had something happened to his soulmate? He hadn’t even met them yet, he didn’t even know what Terminator meant, unless that man who just called him that could tell him-

Oh.

_Oh._

“Bucky?” Steve’s voice was low as he took Bucky’s arm in his hands. His eyes widened when he saw the words, which had died down to black. “Did you just…?”

Sam had joined them, looking from Bucky to the people huddled in front of the van and back. “With _Barton_? I mean, he’s a cool guy, but he is really clumsy. I didn’t even know he hadn’t activated yet.”

Steve ignored him. “Bucky, are you alright?”

“That Clint guy…he’s my soulmate?” Bucky whispered. His head was spinning, and he felt like his knees would give out.

“I-I guess so.” Steve ran a hand through his hair. “Oh, fuck, this is the worst timing. We’re about to get into a dangerous fight and you just activated-“

“Steve!”

The three of them looked up at the others. Wanda stared at them curiously, and the other guy with them was pointedly not looking at anyone else. Clint-Bucky’s _soulmate_ -was sitting on the ground, looking like the wind had been knocked out of him.

“Wanda. Did Clint activate?”

Wanda nodded.

“Oh, man. So did Bucky. Guys, I am really sorry for the bad timing-“

“You can’t change fate or whatever, Steve,” Clint interrupted, the first time he had spoken since the activation.

Bucky snorted. “He’ll try to.” Clint glanced up and smirked, and a sudden warmth beat in Bucky’s chest. His soulmate seemed to like his sense of humor.

( _Soulmate_. Bucky was never getting over that word.)

An alarm shattered the moment. A man started speaking over the speakers in German, his words automatically translating in Bucky’s mind. “They’re evacuating the airport,” he announced, standing up.

Steve cursed under his breath in Gaelic. “Stark.” The pain in his voice was evident, and Bucky remembered that they were going up against _Steve’s_ soulmate. Of course, he had to find his own right before that.

“Stark?” Scott asked.

Steve closed his eyes, breathing deeply. When he opened them again, he had entered what Bucky had called “Captain America” mode.

“Suit up.”

* * *

 

“There’s our ride!”

Clint broke into a run with Wanda at his side towards the hangar with the quinjet. Steve and Scott joined them, and Steve waved at Bucky- _Clint’s fucking soulmate holy shit_ -and Sam. “C’mon!” They caught up, and for a moment Clint thought that they could pull this off.

Of course, Vision had to cut a line in the ground right in front of them, and then they had to get into a hand-to-hand battle with the other side. At least Natasha still wanted to be his friend.

Scarlet dragged T’challa away from Bucky and into a loading deck, and Clint thanked her in his head.

Then he got to launch Scott on an arrow into Tony’s suit, where he pretended to be his conscience. That was the funniest thing he’d seen all day.

“ _We gotta go, that guy’s probably up in Siberia by now,_ ” Bucky panted over the comms.

“ _We need to take care of the fliers,_ ” Steve pointed out. “ _I’ll take Vision, you go to the jet._ ”

“ _No!_ ” Sam cut in, the air whizzing behind his voice. “ _Both of you need to get to the jet! The rest of us aren’t getting out of here._ ”

Sadly, Sam was right. With Vision backing up Stark’s team, not all of them would make it to the jet. Clint had been preparing himself for this, but now with his new connection to Bucky…he wasn’t sure he could stand having to split up, just after meeting.

But Steve and Bucky had to make it to Siberia. Objective trumped emotions.

“As much as I hate to admit it…” Clint nocked an arrow. “If we’re gonna win this one, some of us might have to lose it.” He could practically see Steve’s face as he fought internally over what to do.

Sam chimed back in. “ _This isn’t the real fight, Steve!_ ”

Steve sighed. “ _Alright, Sam. What’s the plan?_ ”

“ _We need a diversion-something big._ ”

“ _Oh, I’ve got something big!_ ” Scott exclaimed. “ _I can’t hold it for very long._ ” It physically hurt Clint to not make a dick joke.

“ _Run like hell, and if I tear myself in half, don’t come back for me._ ”

“ _He’s gonna tear himself in_ half?!” Bucky exclaimed.

Steve ignored him. “ _Scott, you sure about this?_ ”

“ _Don’t worry, I do it all the time! I mean once. In a lab. Then I passed out._ ”

That had not been on Scott’s file. Before Clint could question what he meant, Scott appeared out of nowhere, and grew until he was towering over the airport. He grabbed Rhodey and swung him around while cackling.

Up in the air, Sam whooped. “Way to go, Tic-Tac!”

“ _Clint?_ ” Bucky’s voice jolted Clint out of his awe. Nobody else seemed to respond to Bucky, so he guessed that he was using a private connection.

“ _I’ll see you later…I can call you Bucky, right? It’s not weird?_ ”

Bucky chuckled, and the sound warmed Clint’s heart. “ _Yeah, it’s alright._ ”

“ _Cool._ ”

The fight just got crazier after that. Clint ended up going toe-to-toe with T’Challa. After he caught the exploding arrows, Clint clicked his weapon into a more suitable mode. “We haven’t met yet. I’m Clint.”

“I don’t care,” T’Challa snarled. Wow, he tried to be nice to the enemy and got snark in return.

A few minutes into their fight, he slashed right through Clint’s fourth favorite bow. Aww, vibranium claws, no.

Then he knocked Clint out. Aww, vibranium suit, no.

* * *

 

Understandably, when Tony walked into the prison, Clint wasn’t in the best mood.

He had been imprisoned for trying to do the right thing. They had taken all of his gear, including the special hearing aids Tony had made for him, so he had to wear the old pair given to him. Wanda was locked away in a cell-even worse than being forced to stay in her room. Clint had dragged her out from one prison into another. Jesus, she was just a kid, she didn’t deserve this.

On top of that, Clint was worried about Bucky. Sure, he was a trained assassin that had been working for decades, and he was with Captain America, but that didn’t ease his nerves. There were supposed to be five other super soldiers at the location they were heading to, and he doubted two other super soldiers could take them on, even if one of them had the complete version of the serum. Just the thought of it made Clint’s fingers itch for a bow, for something to shoot. Tony’s face and Clint’s words were the closest he had to a target and arrows.

Clint started clapping, pouring as much sarcasm as he could into it. “The futurist, gentlemen!” he announced. “The futurist is here! He sees all. He knows what’s best for you, whether you like it or not.”

“Give me a break, Barton,” Tony snapped, walking over to his cell. “I had no idea they put you here, c’mon.”

Clint looked away to spit on the floor. “Yeah, well, they had to put us somewhere, Tony.”

“But not some…super-maxed floating ocean pokey. Y’know, this is a place for maniacs, it’s a place for…” Tony swallowed roughly. “Criminals.”

He really wasn’t getting it. Clint stood up. “We’re criminals, Tony.” He leaned against the cell door, close enough that he didn’t have to read Tony’s lips. “I think that’s the word you’re looking for. Right? It didn’t use to mean me, or Sam or Wanda.” He shrugged. “But here we are.”

“Because you broke the law.”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t make you.”

Clint had enough. He started singing tunelessly to block out Tony’s words, but he was having none of it. He raised his voice over the singing.

“You read the law. You broke it. Alright, you’re all grown up, you have a dog and a-Jesus, Barton, since when did you activate?”

Clint froze. He had stretched his arms out, so the words on his forearm were visible. The people that took him in to custody had fortunately not cared enough about it, so he got to avoid the questions. “What?”

“Don’t play that game with me. Last I saw you, the words on your arm were faint brown, but now they’re completely black. Who did-“

If there was one thing Tony could be credited for, it was being a genius. His face went through many emotions-surprise, confusion, thinking, confusion, dawning, and shock. “It’s him.”

“You’ll have to be more specific than that,” Clint joked weakly.

Tony gave him a Look. “Robocop.”

Clint gave him a Look of his own. Tony stepped away and ran his good hand through his hair. “Oh, fuck. This entire thing is a mess,” he whispered, finally moving away from Clint’s cell.

“You’ve gotta watch your back with this guy,” Clint called after him. “There’s a chance he’s gonna break it!” He ripped out his hearing aids before Tony could respond.

He was right. Everything was a fucking mess.

* * *

 

Steve’s face was an iron wall of anger. He pummeled Tony over and over, knocking off his helmet with his shield. Bucky couldn’t remember the last time he had seen Steve this angry, and it scared him. The little sick kid from Brooklyn wasn’t anywhere to be seen, and it was downright terrifying.

To his credit, Tony tried to defend himself. But it was obvious that he was losing. Bucky’s mind raced. Soulmates shouldn’t fight like this, they shouldn’t be hurting each other like this.

Steve raised his shield up for the killing blow above the arc reactor, but he never made it. With a strangled cry, he hit Tony’s head instead, knocking him out cold. He didn’t move.

“Steve,” Bucky rasped, and Steve looked back at him. He was crying silently, the tears running down his face.

Steve dropped the shield by Tony’s side and went to help Bucky up. Without his arm, it was hard to keep his balance.

They made their way out of the fortress and back to their hijacked quinjet. T’challa stood by the opening, Zemo tied up next to him. Bucky tensed, but T’challa made no move to fight him. He beckoned them aboard.

Steve managed to type in the location of the prison where Clint and the others were being held, before he let his emotions overtake him and he collapsed crying in Bucky’s arms. T’challa stayed silent as Bucky tried to comfort his friend. The little sick kid from Brooklyn was back, and he was as scared of Captain America’s anger as Bucky was.

Nobody spoke a word until they arrived.

* * *

 

Without the hearing aids, Clint was lost to the world. He couldn’t hear anyone call for him or any noise from outside his cell.

He didn’t bother putting them back in until he felt a rush of air that meant his cell door was opening, and a metal hand touched his shoulder.

* * *

 

“Hi.”

“Hi,” Bucky replied as he stared out the window at the lush jungle outside.

Clint stuffed his hands in his pockets. He had always been bad with words, and now that he was with his fucking _soulmate_ , words became even more difficult for him.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Clint cleared his throat. “Our first meeting was, um, kind of rushed.” He stuck his hand out. “I’m Clint Barton. Best sniper in the world.”

“Saw your file.” Bucky shook Clint’s hand, two firm shakes before he let go. “I’m assuming you read mine as well.”

“Yeah, both the Winter Soldier and the James Barnes files.”

“Smart.” The silence was still there, but more comfortable.

Once again, Clint broke it. “So, you’re thinking about getting frozen again?”

“I can’t trust my mind. Whatever HYDRA did is still in there, and I don’t want to risk someone activating it.” He looked up at Clint. “Is that alright with you?”

Hearing it stung a bit. Clint wanted to get to know Bucky, not the man in the Howling Commandos or the brainwashed assassin that never missed a shot. He wanted to make up for lost time.

But if anyone understood his reasons, it was Clint himself. He couldn’t even look at Thor for two weeks without thinking of Loki, and was fearful that he could also get in his head. He had gotten better, but he was still wary of someone taking control of him again. This would help to give Bucky closure.

“Yeah, man, I understand.”

Now Bucky really looked at Clint. He shifted so that he was leaning up on the wall. “You do? Steve doesn’t really agree with me.”

“Well…” Clint was going to have to get it off his chest at some point. “You read about the Battle of New York, right?”

“Yeah. Loki and his army?”

“That’s the one. Did it mention his brainwashed soldiers?”

Bucky nodded.

Clint took a deep breath. “I was…I was one of them.”

He tilted his head to the side, like a cat. “Really?”

“Yeah, it was-it was a lot.” The room was warm, but Clint started to shiver.

“Hey, hey.” The hand on Clint’s soldier was gentle. “You don’t need to tell me about it if you’re not ready.”

Clint nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

Bucky looked down and huffed out a short laugh. “Two brainwashed assassins. What a pair we are.”

He laughed. “America’s Power Couple of the Year.”

A smile flitted across Bucky’s face, and it warmed Clint’s heart. “Is that a thing now?”

“Sure. You’re not caught up on the world yet, are you?”

“I don’t even know what a Terminator is.”

Holy shit.

“How about this-while you’re frozen, I’ll come up with a list of stuff you need to watch or read, in order of importance. The list might be long, so don’t stay in there too long. You need to watch the Terminator movies as soon as possible.”

“Will I get to watch them with you?”

And wow, that look was obviously why all of the books called Bucky a heartbreaker. Clint tried to force down the rush in his cheeks. “Well, seeing how you’re stuck with me for the rest of your life, I don’t see why not.”

Bucky smirked. “I look forward to it, Clint.”

“Bucky!”

The hand dropped from Clint’s shoulder as Bucky turned to face Steve. He paused in the middle of the hallway, looking embarrassed. “Um, am I interrupting something?”

Clint grinned. “Nah, we’re alright, Cap.”

“Good.” Steve looked back to Bucky. “The doctors say they’re ready.”

“Alright.” Bucky looked back at Clint. “Looks like you need to get started on that list.”

“I’ll be here once you wake up with a pile of movies taller than Steve.”

Bucky smiled that fleeting smile again, before he followed Steve out of the hallway. And Clint let himself consider, for the first time in years, that maybe he deserved a soulmate.

He looked at Bucky’s retreating figure and smiled to himself. Bucky’s ass didn’t hurt, either.

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo, thanks for reading!
> 
> I’ll be writing some more stuff for Winterhawk week, and I may write about some other Marvel pairings if I get the chance. If I got anything wrong, feel free to correct me! This is my first time writing for Marvel.
> 
> I do write for some other fandoms, if you want to read more of my work. I write for Homestuck, Percy Jackson, and a few others.
> 
> Once again, thank you for reading!


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